From Carl in K-Town

The South African government cautioned Wednesday that an early withdrawal of peacekeepers from the Democratic Republic of Congo could reverse gains made since the end of a five-year war in 2003. South Africa has around 2,000 troops serving in MONUC, which mainly consists of soldiers from African armies.

The United Nations appealed on Tuesday for fresh funds to help nearly 100,000 Congolese refugees go home this year, but said continuing violence prevented returns to the eastern part of the DRC. Some $47 million of its $62 million appeal is earmarked for the voluntary repatriation programme, with the remaining $15 million aimed at providing aid to 1.1 million people uprooted within Democratic Republic of Congo.

A train derailed anda t leat twenty passengers died in the town of Mokambo (south east of Lubumbashi) in Katanga province. Congolese National Railway officials told AFP that all those killed were stowaways. When DRC got independence, the railway network was one the most important in Africa, now travelling by train is so hazardous that losses (of lives and goods) are often registered. Tons of food stored by WFP in Lubumbashi cannot be carried to the starving population when airlifts are too costly to the organosation.

Investigations are being carried on by different commissions to find out the cause of last riots in several towns in Bas Congo province. On a different site, at least 250 houses were torched and one person killed in land dispute in Kasai Oriental province (60 km south of Mbujimayi).

Insurgents faithful to renegade general Nkunda are alleged to be recruiting new fighters in Ngungu (Masisi territory). Monuc observed the same recruitment in Tongo where demobilised troops are being conscripted intothe army by a certain Saddam, mixed battalion commander in Tongo. Furthermore, some residents at Karibu hotel preferred to move because Gen Nkunda was alleged to be among the customers this weekend.